Michael Gove doles out the booze as Cabinet big hitters get stuck on the trains

Written by Total Politics on 24 July 2018 in Diary

Diary

At least ministers had a better day than the PM...

Cabinet away days can be a slog at the best of times - forcing ministers who'd rather be cracking on with the day job to trudge far from Westminster in a bid to show voters they're not all bubble-dwellers.

Spare a thought, then, for the batch of Cabinet big-hitters who found themselves stuck on a train back from Gateshead yesterday.

Wildfires on the tracks at least meant that Environment Secretary Michael Gove got the chance to get stuck into a good book, and one Twitter spy reports that he marked the occasion by "doling out wine to new friends" joining him in the plush first class seats (the train was apparently declassified, meaning a free-for-all on the top seats).

Wildfires have killed trains between York and Doncaster. Environment Minister @michaelgove has been doling out wine to new friends that have been forced to join First in this now declassified train. Sante! pic.twitter.com/SxWh0v6ZCl

Poor old Penny Mordaunt, meanwhile, had to shelve a planned in-person appearance at a summit in London, although she bravely soldiered on and managed to give a speech via videolink... from the train carriage.

Justice Secretary David Gauke, Chief Secretary to the Treasury Liz Truss and International Trade Secretary Liam Fox were also said to have been caught up in the delays - although Transport Secretary Chris Grayling seems to have gotten off lightly, avoiding easy headlines about the man responsible for Britain's railways being held up on them.

Still, at least things went a bit better for Theresa May's ministers than it did for her the PM herself. Addressing workers in Gateshead, the Tory chief managed to fire up the Maybot that was such a rip-roaring success during last year's election campaign and real off a less-than-convincing list of 'normal person' hobbies.

"You have the world's most stressful job how do you cope and unwind?" - @theresa_may says she enjoys walking, cooking and watching US police drama series #NCIS